BOZICH | Lupica says Calipari was not taking a shot at Pitino

Was Kentucky coach John Calipari taking a shot at Rick Pitino and the Cards' issues with the NCAA last week? New York Daily News columnist Mike Lupica gives his take.

Wednesday, June 22nd 2016, 8:50 PM EDT

Updated:

Wednesday, June 22nd 2016, 9:02 PM EDT

By Rick Bozich

New York sports columnist Mike Lupica said that he does not believe John Calipari (right) was taking a shot at Rick Pitino last week.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Was Kentucky coach John Calipari taking a shot at Rick Pitino of Louisville last week when he said that if problems happen on your campus and involve assistant coaches that the head coach has a “good idea” of what’s going on?

No -- that's the response from the guy in the middle of the dust-up, New York Daily News sports columnist Mike Lupica.

Lupica interviewed Calipari on his podcast last week when Cal made this comment more than 29 minutes into their conversation:

“All I can tell you is this: If it happens on your campus and it happens with your assistants and those people, you probably have a pretty good idea of what’s going on. If it happens back in their hometown, it happens back with their family or other ways, there’s no way you can know. You just don’t know. So, all I would say is most coaches have an idea if it happened on their campus. You might not be the first to know about it, but you eventually hear about it.”

I asked Lupica in an email if he believed that Calipari was directing his comments at Pitino. He knows both coaches from their days as head coaches in the New York City area – Calipari with the Nets and Pitino with the Knicks.

This was Lupica’s written response:

“As I told Hannah Storm (of ESPN) on Tuesday, I honestly don't believe Cal was talking about Rick. I just assumed he'd already been asked -- and answered -- the question about the Louisville situation when it happened.

“Believe me, if I had wanted to ask about Rick, I would have. And he would have answered it however he answered it.

“In my mind, the question was about everything that has happened recently in college basketball: Boeheim, Larry Brown, the African-American studies course at North Carolina. And Louisville, even though that was down the list in my mind, even though it's obviously not down the list there.

“Listen: I like both of them. I am not averse to stirring things up, believe me. I just didn't think I was doing it this time. And didn't think he did, either. He's right about one thing, though. It's not what he says any longer. It's what people think he meant. So it goes.”

Pitino has said in multiple interviews that he had no knowledge of any of the alleged events involving strippers and prostitution. As a result of an internal investigation, U of L president Dr. James Ramsey decided that Louisville would not participate in the 2016 ACC and NCAA Tournaments.

On Monday, during an interview with Terry Meiners on WHAS radio, Pitino said this:

“I don't have time to figure out what (Calipari) did or didn't mean. If our paths cross this summer, I'll ask him … I don't live in a glass house, and I don't throw stones."